Courageous Advocacy is the act of speaking out against an issue of injustice, often on behalf of those whose voice is not heard. Courage is needed to stand up for something or someone you believe in, especially when that choice is not the most popular.

At The William Alvey, we strive for all our children to leave school with the skills to become 'agents of change', so they can make the world a better place, help those in need and stand up for causes they believe in.

Our starting point on our Courageous Advocacy journey was for each year group to choose a Courageous Advocate in 2023/24. The children learnt about how these Courageous Advocates have tried to make the world a better place. This then led into a discussion about how our children could follow this example. 

The Courageous Advocates that were chosen are: 

YR - Andy Day

Y1 - Steve Backshall

Y2 - George McGavin

Y3 - Dolly Parton

Y4 - Harry Gregson

Y5 - Sting

Y6 - Malala Yousafzai

Courageous advocacy requires a willingness to be vulnerable and to take a stand, even when it may not be popular or easy. It is a powerful way to effect change and make a positive impact on the world. As a school, this is a concept we want our children to learn about. We also want our children to use the skills they learn about in their every day life. This is something our children do. For example, our children have shown the courage not to walk past a problem (e.g. many have voluntarily helped to clean the River Slee, pick up litter in our playground or stop an unpleasant situation developing at playtime or in class). 

As a school community, we have focussed a great deal of energy on affecting positive change by focussing on homelessness. For example, our school community made a number of sleeping bags, out of crisp packets, for local homeless people, in summer 2024. We deepened this mission in 2024/25 by following Desmond Tutu's advice about 'there comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.' These are some of the steps we took on this journey:

* We took part in the 'Big Sleep Out' in March 2025 and then did this again within the school grounds in July 2025. This gave us first-hand knowledge of how hard life is when you sleep out.

* Our school community offered thoughtful gifts to local homeless charities in summer 2025. For example, we encouraged giving sanitary products. We discouraged donating shower gel and suggested donating wipes instead. 

* We teach our children age-appropriate life skills (budgeting for example) that will help them avoid homelessness later in life.  

Word about the many things we are doing to promote Courageous Advocacy is getting around. For example, Steve Backshall sent us a short film in April 2025, which I share with you below.